


Crushed At Work

by spacewitchqueen (vixy)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Office, Crush at First Sight, M/M, Mentions of alcohol, No one gets blackout drunk, oblivious fools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:42:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vixy/pseuds/spacewitchqueen
Summary: Basic office rule: Do not fall for your boss.For Nicky, that is easier said than done, no matter how much he would like to pretend it's not happening.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 28
Kudos: 254





	1. Chapter 1

Being the new guy at the office was not all that bad. Sure, Nicky still had trouble remembering names and things like the printer code or which door led to the bathroom and which one to the file room but he was getting the hang of it. He had managed to befriend the lovely young woman whose cubicle was right outside his tiny office, Nile, and she had introduced him to a couple others and made sure he had someone to have lunch with.The workload was not overwhelming, most people were friendly, or at least polite; all in all, after a couple of weeks, Nicky was settling in nicely.

Then there was The Boss. Well, one of the two regional managers that Nicky worked with. He couldn’t be much older than Nicky. Nicky decided this was why he had some trouble looking at him strictly as an authority figure. No, of course it had nothing to do with the fact that the guy was drop-dead gorgeous. So much so that he somehow made a three-piece suit look positively indecent. No, Nicky didn’t find him —Mr. al-Kaysani— distracting at all. Maybe just when he had to go to his office. Which happened to be every day.

During the very first meeting, just a day after Nicky had joined the company, he couldn’t help but notice Mr. al-Kaysani’s eyes on him. Nicky dismissed this at once as a figment of his imagination, after all it was normal to pay attention to the new guy, right?

Nicky didn’t work directly for Mr. al-Kaysani (“please call me Joe!”), but as a contract analyst he was pretty much part of every team. He prefered working with the other regional manager, Andy. It wasn’t that Joe was a bad boss, it was that at least during Andy’s meetings his head didn’t stray towards inappropriate daydreams and he could actually focus on what was being said. 

As it was, it seemed to Nicky that he was spending more and more time in Joe’s office every day. There was a lot of to be done, sure. But no matter how hard he tried, there was always something pending, some question, some clarification, some document to go over again. Nicky couldn’t complain, not really. Joe was kind and other than the very formal suit there was a casual way about him when he talked to Nicky, almost as if they were old friends, as if they had known each other for a long time. But Nicky did complain, though, because they usually ended up talking for a long time about random topics, and because he felt so lightheaded after leaving Joe’s office that he couldn’t focus on anything else which meant Nicky had to work overtime to catch up. 

“I wish Joe, ah, Mr. al-Kaysani would pay closer attention to my status updates during the meetings so I wouldn’t have to go to his office ten minutes after leaving it to explain the numbers again,” Nicky lamented during lunch one day, rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes.

“Uh-huh, well he’s not stupid.” Nile snorted.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just. He never had any trouble with numbers before you joined the team, so it sounds like someone has a little crush,” Nile said in a sing-song voice.

“He doesn’t have a crush on me, Nile, and I certainly don’t have a crush on him.” Nicky rolled his eyes. “This isn’t high school, you know?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Booker, the IT guy who sometimes had lunch with them, chimed in. “The things I see on the instant messenger.” He raised his eyebrows to make his point. Nile laughed. 

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.” Nicky huffed and stabbed his lunch with his fork. The idea that the boss would find him attractive was ludicrous. Joe was only being friendly, trying to make Nicky feel welcome, that was all.

Still, on particularly boring days, Nicky allowed himself to fantasize about Joe. Joe, with his tailored suits, so classy, so elegant and yet his hair tied in a bun hinting at something that Nicky could only describe as playful. Just like the constellation of freckles on Joe’s face. And the way his eyes lit up when he laughed. Even while he was lost in these thoughts, Nicky denied to himself that he had a crush. It was just the newness of it all, it had to be.

There was also something to be said about Nicky’s newfound interest to make sure he looked good. But he justified this as just following the dress code (that very few people seemed to care about much less comply with).

On more than one occasion Nile had found Nicky reading the Employee’s Handbook, and while he claimed he was only checking the summary of perks and benefits, he was really trying to interpret the section on workplace relationships. As it turned out, since Joe wasn’t his line manager, there would be nothing against it. Not that Nicky cared, he didn’t have time for office romance and he wasn’t interested in anyone like that, he didn’t have a crush.

It was only when he started wondering whether he liked Joe’s eyes or his smile best, and —worse— what would it be like to kiss him, Nicky realized he was utterly infatuated with the man. How very inconvenient. 

“Fine, I might have a crush on him,” Nicky confessed to Nile during the afternoon coffee break some days later.

“Huh? Who would that be?” Nile teased.

“Ha ha. Very funny. Now what do I do?”

Nile shrugged. “Tell him.”

Nicky almost choked on his coffee. “Are you insane?”

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He could fire me?” Nicky muttered something that sounded very much like a curse under his breath. “Or at the very least he could have me transferred to another office for creating a toxic work environment or something.”

“Doubtful, he likes you,” Nile replied while re-filling her mug.

“Seriously, are you insane?”

“Are you oblivious?” Nile asked him without missing a beat.

“He. Doesn’t. Like. Me.” Nicky sighed, it hurt to say it out loud. “Joe is just being nice, he’s nice to everyone.”

“Joe _is_ nice to everyone,” Nile admitted. “But he doesn’t spend hours chatting up anyone else.”

“What are you talking about?” Nicky hissed, his cheeks going red. “He doesn’t chat me up and besides sure he does.”

“Who then?”

“Copley.”

“Copley is a family man.” 

“Oh. Well, still, they do talk a lot.”

“They’ve known each other for years, went to college together I think. Are you jealous, Nicky? I thought this wasn’t high school.” Nile grinned.

“Shut up.” 

“Fine, you don’t want to tell him? Don’t. You know what you need? A distraction. Come with us this Friday.”

“Us who?” Nicky asked, hoping to hear Joe’s name.

“Andy, Booker, some other guys you have not met yet, Quynh and Lykon.”

“Where?” Nicky mumbled, taking a sip of his coffee to hide his disappointment.

“This bar we like to go to, it’s not too far from here. Loud music, cheap drinks, overworked people winding down after a hard week.”

“No, thank you. I’m pretty sure I’ll have reports to finish.”

Nile rolled her eyes. “Just come with us. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.” 

There was a hint of something like a joke in Nile’s voice, but Nicky couldn’t tell what it was. He wanted to ask but they had to go back to work.

Friday rolled around and Nicky was still unsure about the bar. He was trying to come up with an excuse when there was a knock on his door. It was Joe. 

“Busy day?”

“No,” Nicky answered at once, everything else could (and would have to) wait.

“May I?” Joe pointed to the chair in front of Nicky’s desk. 

Nicky nodded. “Was there a problem with yesterday’s estimates?”

“No, no, no problem.” Joe sat down and shook his head. “I just wanted to ask… have you read any good books lately?”

“Books?” Nicky asked, completely taken aback by the question.

“Yeah. You mentioned that you love reading, didn’t you?”

“Oh, right, when we were talking about tv shows and then movies and then movies based on books and then just books.”

Joe smiled. “Right. So, any recommendations?”

An hour later Joe left Nicky’s office but he was still very much on Nicky’s thoughts. He didn’t even hear Nile when she popped in to ask if he wanted to have lunch until the she practically yelled at him.

“No time for lunch,” Nicky said, flustered.

“Boss woes, huh?” Nile could not help it. “You’re doomed.”

“Does he have to be so charming?”

“Yes, it’s in his contract.” Nile took pity on him. “Come on, Nicky, let’s go get something to eat. You’re not doing anything anyway.”

Nicky opened his mouth to protest but he knew she was right, he got up and followed her out of his office. “I might need to quit. I can’t work like this.”

“You need a drink.”

Nicky could not disagree. “Yeah, that might be a good idea.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky has a crush, now what? Unbeknownst to him, Andy and Nile have a running bet on who will make the first move, Joe or Nicky. And since they are taking way too long to their liking, Andy and Nile decide to speed things up a bit outside of the office. Who will it be?

Friday afternoon. Sometime after 6, Nicky finally gave in to Nile’s loud sighs and agreed to log off for the day so they could go to the bar. 

“One drink, Nile, then I go home,” Nicky warned her as soon as they set foot in the place. 

Nile rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. We’ll see.” She looked around, waved at a couple of people but made a beeline for an empty booth and called the waitress to order drinks. 

“Are we starting without them? I thought you said everyone would be here?” Nicky yelled to make himself heard over the loud music.

Nile ignored him, she kept craning her neck towards the door. Suddenly, her face lit up. Nicky followed her line of sight, Andy was walking towards them, someone else close behind her. Nicky assumed it would be Booker. He was wrong.

“Andy! Joe! Glad you could join us.” Nile beamed at them. She motioned for Andy to sit beside her so Joe had to sit next to Nicky. Nile turned to Nicky with a grin that said all too clearly: let’s see you having only one drink now. 

Nicky stared daggers at Nile, mouthing a curse at her, but couldn’t do much else. He chanced a look at Joe. Nicky had never understood the ‘butterflies in the stomach’ expression until now. Joe was laughing (probably at something Andy had said, or Nile, Nicky wasn’t sure which because between the music and his frantic heartbeat he wasn’t following the conversation). The top two buttons of Joe’s shirt were undone, like Nicky. Nile caught him staring and winked at him. If Nicky could’ve turned redder he would have. Instead, he emptied his glass and ordered another drink.

After that second drink Nicky felt more relaxed, he spent the next hour in a sort of daze. There was no need to panic. Sure, the most beautiful man alive was sitting mere inches from him but Joe didn’t seem to be paying him particular attention. Their legs were pressed together because the booth was cramped, that was all. And the way their hands kept touching? Nothing either, maybe just the way they both spoke, gesticulating. Nicky just had to stay for a bit longer so as not to be rude and then he could go home and take a cold shower. His train of thought derailed to Joe in the shower. He bit his lip.

“You’ve been awfully quiet. What’s on your mind?” Joe asked, leaning closer to Nicky. 

“Work stuff, you don’t want to know,” Nicky blurted. He didn’t dare to look at Joe this close, he was sure his wayward thoughts were etched on his face. He glanced at Andy and Nile to check if they were staring but they appeared to be engrossed in their own conversation, they were laughing too, Nicky wondered what about. 

Joe’s voice made Nicky forget about Andy and Nile. “Anything I could help you with?”

Something inside Nicky’s head screamed  _ Yes!  _ Nicky shook his head no.

“Well, let me know.” Joe didn’t move away, he was still leaning into Nicky, one arm around his shoulders. “I’m glad you joined us.”

“To be fair, Nile insisted quite a bit.”

“I mean at the office.” Joe’s lips brushed the shell of Nicky’s ear. “I like working with you.”

“Me too.”

“It’s a shame we haven’t spent more time together.”

Nicky laughed. “Well, we do have to work from time to time.”

“True.” Joe snorted. “But is it entirely out of the question?”

“What is?”

“Spending time together. Maybe going out, sometime.”

Nicky turned to look at Joe, not quite believing what he was hearing. “I thought we were doing that right now.”

“Just us.” Joe leaned in closer. “Unless you don’t like me, the way I like you.”

“You… like me?”

Nicky’s mind went blank. He wanted to say that of course he did, he was about to reply that he would like that very much when Andy slammed her fist on the table startling them.

“Alright, I’ll get going now. My drinks are on Nile since she, ah, owes me money.” She winked at Nile and got up.

“And I’ll be on my way too, since I have no more money.” Nile put a few bills on the table and stood up. A minute later they were both gone.

“What just happened?” Nicky asked.

Joe shrugged. “Andy doesn’t like the noise. I’m surprised she agreed to come at all.” He seemed to be lost in thought for a bit. “Actually, now that I think about it, she pretty much dragged me here. Strange. Anyway, where were we?”

“We, ah…”

Joe interrupted Nicky. “Right, we were talking about us.”

“Us.” Nicky nodded. The combined effect of the drinks and Joe being so close making him dizzy.

“You know you can be honest with me, if you don’t like me that way. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable because I’m the boss.”

Nicky laughed in earnest. He wanted to tell Joe how that was not the case at all, how he was hopelessly falling for him, but instead all he managed to say was: “You’re not my boss.”

Joe smiled and pulled Nicky closer just to stop not an inch away from his face. “Maybe we can wait for an official first date, you know, take things slow.”

“Sure.”

As it turned out, they couldn’t. They paid for their drinks and then barely made it out of the bar when Joe pushed Nicky against a wall and kissed him passionately. It was so much better than Nicky had been imagining for the past few weeks. Joe’s lips on his, their bodies pressed together felt natural. He couldn’t get enough, and it appeared neither could Joe. 

Twenty minutes later they were at Nicky’s place, unable to keep their hands off each other in the elevator, stumbling all the way to Nicky’s door not so much because of the alcohol but because they kept stopping every few steps and pulling the other in for a kiss.

Somehow, Joe’s shirt had a lot more buttons open coming out of the elevator than it had going in. Nicky thought it was a miracle they’d made it to his apartment with all their clothes on. Mostly. That changed almost as soon as they closed the door behind them. Nicky threw his jacket on the floor and began fumbling with his buttons but he stopped at the sight of Joe, already shirtless.

“Do you like what you see?” Joe asked, a smirk on his face. “May I?” He didn’t wait for Nicky to respond but he did take what Nicky felt was a painfully long time undoing each button. Nicky huffed when Joe took a step back. “You are breathtakingly beautiful.”

“You are,” Nicky muttered, pulling Joe closer, grinding against him. He felt Joe’s lips curling into a smile.

“You should be admired, worshipped.” He nuzzled Nicky’s neck and traced a line of kisses along his collarbone.

Nicky groaned. “Joe, please.” 

“We did say we’d take it slow,” Joe teased, tugging on one of Nicky’s belt loops.

“Maybe next time.” Nicky grabbed Joe’s hand and led him to his bedroom.

For all of Nicky’s impatience, Joe took his sweet time driving him mad with his mouth first, and still more time opening him up before burying himself in him. They came one after the other, then they came together and when they were exhausted, they remained tangled, panting, catching their breaths.

“Can I stay the night?” Joe asked, his voice heavy with sleep, eyes still full of desire.

“You can stay forever.”

They ended up staying in Nicky’s bed all weekend. Joe went home late on Sunday afternoon only so he could get properly dressed for work the next day.

Nicky was just turning on his computer on Monday morning when Nile perched herself on his desk. 

“Look at you all bright and shiny. Did you have a good weekend?” 

Nicky could feel the heat rising to his cheeks but he managed to give Nile a crooked smile. “As a matter of fact I did.”

Nile mock-covered her ears. “I don’t need the details! I just came by to see if you were ok, you were going through it at the bar.”

“You have no idea.”

“Let’s leave it that way. You made me lose money, you know?”

“Money?”

“Andy and I made a bet.”

“A bet?”

“Yeah, on who would fess up about your mutual crush first. It was tortuous watching you, honestly. I was sure you’d cave in first and admit your crush. I guess Andy knows Joe better.”

Just then, Joe went by Nicky’s office, winking at him and waving at Nile. 

Nicky beamed at Joe, then turned to Nile half-shocked, half-amused. “So you arranged the bar thing?”

“To speed things up a bit, yeah. Looks like you and Joe should be thanking us, otherwise you’d still be pining like idiots." Nile shrugged. "Though I guess I’d still have my money.”

“Sorry, maybe there’s another way to get it back.”

“Oh, we are already on it. We’re betting on how long before you move in together. Andy says six months, I say three. So look alive, Nicky.”

Nicky flushed red but he laughed. “Get back to work!”

“You’re not the boss, you know? Even if you’re with him now.” Nile grinned. “Lunch’s on you since I lost my money getting you a boyfriend.”

Nicky grabbed a stress ball from his desk and flung it at her, Nile dodged it and ran to her cubicle. Nicky sighed but he couldn’t help a smile. “Thank you, Nile,” he muttered.

Joe and Nicky were living together within a month, but the rest of the office didn’t need to know it yet. Nicky thought they could hold the news for a bit so Nile could win the bet. He owed her that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you @ovicati for letting me play with your AU, I hope you liked this <3   
> And as always, thanks everyone for the kudos and comments ♡✧( ु•⌄• )

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this amazing art by ovicati ([tumblr](https://ovicati.tumblr.com/post/634098807812096000/joe-x-nicky-comics-office-au-this-looks-even))
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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